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Syllabus of Lectures 



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Nineteenth Century English Literature 



BY 



LOUIS WARDLAW MILES, Ph. D. 

PRECEPTOR IN ENGLISH, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
LECTURER IN ENGLISH, EXTENSION TEACHING, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 



LOPVIUGHT, 191 1, BY 

Louis Wardlav/ MiL£5 






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Columbia IHntversit^ 
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Syllabus of Lectures 



ON 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 



BY 



LOUIS WARDLAW MILES, Ph. D. 

PRECEPTOR IN ENGLISH, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
LECTURER IN ENGLISH, EXTENSION TEACHING, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



Copyright, 19 ii, by 
Louis Wardlaw Miles 



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©CI,A289295 







INTRODUCTORY. 

The arbitrary but convenient division of a century. Particular 
difficulty of considering 19th century as a unit. Certain marked in- 
fluences : Material, Scientific, Sociological. Present order of treat- 
ment to discuss examples of: (i) The Lyric Period (Words- 
worth,- Byron, Shelley, Keats), (2) The Story-Tellers (Scott, Thack- 
eray, Dickens), (3) The Callers to Repentance (Carlyle, Ruskin), 
(4) The Last Great Singers (Tennyson, Browning), (5) The 
Elegiac Lament and Critical Spirit (Arnold), (6) The Pagan Re- 
volt (Rossetti, Swinburne), (7) The Later Romance (Stevenson), 
(8) The Crucible of the Present (Kipling, Wells, Shaw, Chester- 
ton). 

Present purpose to treat individuals rather than movements. The 
''Three John Joneses" of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Here principally 
the J. J. seen by his neighbors. 



Wordsworth 

A life free from general movements. He lived among the untrod- 
den ways. His soul was as a star and dwelt apart. Length of life 
(1770-1850) suggestive of other characteristics. Something large 
and simple reflecting like aspects of Nature. A mountain slope of 
the Lake Country, bare of tree or man, subdued in color to the 
heather's purple, and lighted with a tempered and brooding sun — 
silent, solemn, serene — ^yet open to the sky and breathed upon by 
the unfettered winds. His two most characteristic lines : 
"The silence that is in the starry sky, 
The sleep that is among the lonely hills." 

Wordsworth, born at Cockermouth, Cumberland. Child father 
to the man. An impetuous healthy boy apparently only unusual for 
a mystical sense of the unreality of Nature. At times would catch 
hold of tree to convince himself of reality. 

''The sky seemed not a sky 
Of earth — and with what motion moved the clouds." 

Cambridge (1787-1791) had little influence. Noble lines on 
Newton's statue, and characteristic account of "a brain excited by 
the fumes of wine". Period of uncertainty. Paris (1792) and the 
one dramatic crisis of an undramatic life-story. The young man 
of twenty-one suddenly swept into history's wildest whirlpool, with 
every prospect of final death by the guillotine, is suddenly rescued 
by an ironic jerk of fate's hand, and brought back to England to 
grow old as a great poet and sound conservative. That the denoue- 
ment was not tragic chiefly due to ( i ) the poet's love of Nature, and 
(2) the influence of his sister. Calvert legacy. Meeting with Cole- 
ridge (1795) and its result Lyrical Ballads (1798), the most revo- 
lutionary volume of EngHsh verse ever published. Preface says 
"written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of 
conversation in the middle and lower classes is adapted to the 
purposes of poetic pleasure". (Later added: "to choose incidents 
and situations from common life".) The two poets and Dorothy. 
Her Journal. Hazlitt's description. 

The visit to Germany where Coleridge studied German philosophy 
and Wordsworth wrote English poetry. Rest of life chiefly at Rydal 
Mount and Grasmere. Subsequent volumes of poetry. Fame grew 
very slowly. Marriage 1802. Laureate 1843. Death 1850. 

Three aspects of the poetry, (i) Naturalism. "The literature 
of the poor, the feelings of the child, the philosophy of the street, 
the meaning of household life" (Emerson). Wordsworth pushed 



6 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

back the boundaries of poetry into regions which the i8th century 
considered entirely prosaic. Connected with this, his lack of interest 
in the medieval which (with interest in Liberty and Nature) marks 
the typical Romanticists. For Naturalism note choice of subject and 
homely details of Michel. (2) Nature Description. The poet's 
most preeminent field. Been well compared to Millet's painting. 
Big broad strokes and tempered coloring. Nature in moods of calm 
and benign sublimity. Night Piece. Skating scene from Prelude. 
(3) Philosophy. A monistic idealism like that of Kant's successors, 
but not of the formal character ascribed to it by Coleridge. "Some- 
thing far more deeply interfused." It was essentially the human 
heart by which Wordsworth lived. 

Wordsworth's faults exemplified by two lacks : no sense of smell 
and no sense of humor. With lack of grosser sensuous qualities 
goes a singular absence of ''love poetry", which suggests Milton. 
Other lack allowed lines of type parodied by Tennyson in 
'*A Mr. Wilkinson, a clergyman." 

As compensation for these lacks he possessed another greater 
and far rarer sense, that of Sublimity. Examples of it in the two 
great Odes. 

Byron 

Lowell's complaint that he could not look at a mountain without 
fancying Wordsworth's "gigantic Roman nose thrust between him 
and it". Byron's intrusion of the personal into his poetry even more 
obvious. Best appreciated as a great personal force in literature. 
His patent weakness as artist, dramatist, and philosopher; his 
strength as a man. Rather the last of the Titans, ever storming the 
heavens of the gods of order and authority, or chained to the rock 
of destiny, his heart torn by the vulture of Remorse. His fame for 
a time largely personal, with power to loosen collars and morals of 
young gentlemen all over Europe. Here as everywhere interesting 
antithesis to Wordsworth. For these reasons Byron's life deserves 
study. His art, complete reverse of art for art's sake. "His. song 
was only a living aloud" — as loud as the roar of cannon or crash of 
thunder. For Wordsworth poetry "takes its origin from emotion 
recollected in tranquility." For Byron "it is the lava of the imagina- 
tion whose eruption prevents an earthquake." Wordsworth emend- 
ed as much as Pope and Tennyson. Byron: "I am like the tiger; 
if I miss the first spring, I go growling back to my jungle." 

Born of bad and aristocratic parents, 1788. Mother's freakish 
temper. Cambridge (1803), and boxing, pet bear, and fashionable 
friends — who prophesied truly of his future glory. Hours of Idle- 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 7 

ness, 1807. Elaborate irony of condescending Quarterly Reviewer. 
Counter-blast withering (''after two bottles of claret") of English 
Bards and Scotch Reviezvers. Heroic couplet satire. Byron's clas- 
sical side and admiration for Pope. The only good satirist among 
the Romanticists. Newstead Abbey, skull drinking-cups and Ro- 
mantic revelry. "A youth who ne in Virtue's ways did take de- 
light" — which applied to himself is typical exaggeration. First trip 
abroad (1809-1811). Its reflection in Childe Harold, first half, 
which made Byron "awake and find himself famous." As example 
of his distaste for the Medieval note how his impatient Pegasus 
threw off the Spenserian archaism after a few stanzas. His Ro- 
manticism : nature-worship and revolt against restraint. 

The Dandy in the Grand World, ''and all that ever went with 
evening dress." The young lion seeking his meat from World, 
Flesh, and Devil. The Romances. Partly written while undressing 
after return from balls. Successful intrigues, and unsuccessful mar- 
riage, 181 5. Its trouble a difficult, question, not cleared by Mrs. 
Stowe's mud contribution. Separation from wife and final exile, 
"bankrupt in purse and heart." Childe Harold, second half (1816- 
17), shows best of Byron's passionate and elevated rhetoric. In the 
Alpine storm, the personality of the speaker strides across the tem- 
pestuous scene and dominates it. Sublimity of passion contrasted 
with Wordsworth's sublimity of brooding reflection. Both poets 
find a companionship in Nature more satisfying than man's. Com- 
pare with Tintern Abbey the desire "to mingle with the Universe" 
{Childe Harold, IV, 178), and "Aly altars are the mountains and the 
ocean" {Don Juan, III, 104). 

Later years in Italy. Shelley. The Spirit of Air and Water and 
the Spirit of Earth and Fire. Trelawny's account. The starvation 
to avoid fatness. The ascetic sensualist, the blase man of unresting 
energy, the self-conscious literary poseur, "managing his pen with 
the careless and negligent ease of a man of quality" (Scott), and 
yet withal, in spite of sins big and little. The Titan. 

Don Juan (1818-23), ^^e truest expression of Byron, the poet of 
"Wit and Passion" {\N. M. Rossetti). The burning energy which 
can find no permanent rest in either joy, sorrow, virtue, vice, earn- 
estness or mockery. "The grand Napoleon of the realms of rhyme'' 
in his last march through the Russian Winter of hypocrisy and ty- 
ranny. 

The Greek expedition and death at Missolonghi, 1824. "Few can 
ever have gone wearier to the grave; none with less fear." (From 
Swinburne's fitting tribute). 

Interesting problem of Byron's future fame. Has already shown 



8 Nineteenth Century English Literature ' 

rises and falls. Swinburne and Arnold in re Shelley vs. Byron. The 
high estimates of Goethe and Arnold. Cherry-stone carvers find 
the shape of his pyramids inelegent, and chamber-music connois- 
seurs object to his preponderance of brass. 

A great natural force. Interesting speculation: What result if 
instead of "shattering itself against impregnable Philistinism" it 
might have been harnessed to a communal loyalty? 

Shelley 

Possible comparison of quality of beauty of the Romantic poets 
to different kinds of natural light. Wordsworth, the brooding 
Northern sun; Byron, the lightning flash by night; Shelley, certain 
effects of moonlight. In harmony with such a comparison 
Alastor — in whom the poet symbolizes himself — expires as the horns 
of the crescent moon sink beneath the horizon. As moonlight unto 
sunlight so Shelley's idealism to realism of ordinary men. In many 
ways less a man than "a pardlike spirit, beautiful and swift." 

Born 1792. His father, Sir Timothy, a hearty English squire, 
with complete inability to understand his ethereal changeling. Al- 
ready at school the young poet might have cried : "I fall among the 
thorns of life, I bleed", albeit many of the thorns such as normal 
boy would despise. After Eton, Oxford, 1809, ^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^ 
happier life. Hogg's fascinating record. Necessity of Atheism and 
expulsion. Marriage to Harriet Westbrooke, 181 1. Godwin circle 
at London. Elopement with Mary Godwin, 181 5. Shelley's remark- 
able proposal to Harriet for a menage a trois. The varying com- 
ments of Dowden and Arnold. Harriet's subsequent tragic death. 
"A star looked down from Heaven and loved a flower" (William 
Watson). The ''ruin'd rosebud" best forgotten by students of Shel- 
ly's poetry — though not forgotten by himself. (Compare the *'brand- 
ed and ensanguined brow which was like Cain's or Christ's" of 
Adonais.) Death of grandfather, 1816, and easy pecuniary circum- 
stances. Self-imposed exile, 1818. Italy and Byron. Record of 
companionship in Julian and Maddalo. Death of Keats, 1821,. and 
Adonais, which foretell's Shelley's own death in 1822. Trelawny's 
account of drowning. 

Shelley the man, a strange and fascinating figure. "The Snake." 
His amiable qualities. Incapable of being a snob (like Byron) as 
of being a horseman or a sailor. A crazy freak or a noble indi- 
vidualist according to point of view. The baffled search for his 
Platonic Ideal incarnated in a woman, which is reflected in Alastor 
and Epipsychidion. The public not unnaturally suspects the "gin- 
-shop" of sometimes supplying the "leg of mutton." 



Nineteenth Century English Literature g 

Byron's poetry an overflow from his life ; Shelley's life an ap- 
proximation of his poetry. Matthew Arnold's verdict: "A beautiful 
and ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in 
vain." Shelley's yearning to escape the prison of personality and 
merge in the One Spirit. Possible picture (possible to a William 
Blake) of the beautiful angel gradually ceasing to beat its wings, 
while the void, growing luminous, absorbs it into that golden and 
eternal "light whose smile kindles the universe." To the Greeks 
foolishness, but not to the Romantics. 

Some qualities of the poetry: (i) The lyric melody. A sweet- 
ness of music surpassing all other songs. "Joyous and clear and 
fresh" as his skylark high above the earth. Akin to this (2) the 
magic, unearthly nature of both tone and thought, which makes 
other singing gross in comparison. (3) A certain scientific closeness 
to natural laws (compare Shelley's delight in pseudo-scientific ex- 
periments), rendering a peculiar sense intime, e. g. account of elec- 
tricity and evaporation in The Cloud; notice of sex in flowers : "No 
sister flower would be forgiven if it disdained its brother"; picture 
of Sargasso Sea in Ode to West Wind. (4) Mythologizing power 
by which the forces of Nature and intellectual abstractions become 
personalities, e. g. in Prometheus Unbound and Adonais. "The 
child's faculty of make-beHeve raised to the nth power" (Francis 
Thompson). (5) The message of Beauty. Plato's influence. Like 
Wordsworth, a monistic idealism but essentially aesthetic rather 
than moral. (6) The message of Liberty, including the desire for 
immediate political liberation (Hymn to Naples) with far off hope 
of ultimate liberation, political, intellectual, and moral, bringing 
message of Beauty to the world. The immortal expression of the 
poet's immolation of self to this consummation, the Ode to the West 
Wind. 

Keats 

The poet of Beauty untouched by other influences. Unlike the 
two poets just considered, and unlike Wordsworth in his youth, 
Keats ignores Liberty, and is concerned only with the glamor of the 
past, and with Nature. His most quoted line, a fitting text: "A 
thing of Beauty is a joy forever." Compare also: "Beauty is 
Truth, Truth Beauty," and his prose words, "I have ever loved 
the principle of Beauty." Contrast with Byron his dictum : "Men of 
Genius are great as certain ethereal chemicals operating on the mass 
of neutral intellect — but they have not any individuality, any deter- 
mined Character. I would call the top and head of those who have a 
proper self Men of Power." 



10 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

Keats' undivided worship of Beauty recalls the Renaissance. 
Marked influence of Spenser and Shakespeare. As a Renascent 
his feeling for Greek life and art natural. The Glory that was 
Greece revealed to the son of an English livery stable keeper. For 
a vivid sense of Keats, the man, read Kipling's story Wireless, and 
the poet's own letters. The pathos of the uncompleted life. At 
the same time the falsity of Shelley's belief that he was "hooted 
from the stage of life," and Byron's 

" 'Tis strange the soul, that fiery little particle, 
Should let itself be snuffed out by an article." 
From the Letters and from estimates of friends, the picture of a 
sturdy manly youth, full of Shakespearean puns and high spirits, 
from whom health would have removed the streaks of adolescent 
sensuousness and morbidity. Brave self-criticism in Preface to 
Endymion. 

Born 1795. As school-boy high-tempered, a great fighter but 
easily appeased. Early lit flame of intellectual ambition. Medicine, 
1810-15. To London to walk the hospitals. Hearty friendships. In- 
fluence of Wordsworth and Leigh Hunt. Poems, 1817. ''Some few 
purple patches of floral promise" (Swinburne) — one patch, the son- 
net on Chapman's Homer. Endymion, 18 18. A tropical jungle in 
which one cannot see the forest for the flowers. Reviews by 'The 
Blackguard" and The Quarterly, "so savage and tartly." The fatal 
affair with Fanny Brawne. In 1820, volume of last and most perfect 
work (Hyperion, Odes, Eve of St. Anges, etc.) To Italy with 
Severn. Death, February 1821. The Last Sonnet, and the bitter 
epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in Water," from 
which "the moving waters at their priest-like task of pure ablution" 
have washed the feverish bitterness. (See also Rossetti's sonnet.) 
The Eve of St. Agnes as typical of Keats' poetry. ( I ) Medieval 
setting, and glamor of the far-off past. (2) Exquisite phrasing 
which, with the thought it so perfectly expresses, appeals in turn 
to each of the senses : "the silver snarling trumpets," "warm gules 
on Madeline's fair breast," "lucent syrops tinct with cinnamon," 
"filling the chilly room with perfume light," "trembling in her soft 
and chilly nest." In all these the magical quality (further intensi- 
fied in the "magic casements" passage of Ode to Nightingale), 
but a different kind from Shelley's more unearthly white magic. 
Keats' more potent to conjure men — Shelley's to conjure spirits. 
(3) Absence of moral caption at the end confers piquancy. "Ages 
long ago these lovers fled away into the night." As the Beadsman 
dies, so dieth Madeline. (Compare similar effect in La Belle Dame 
Sans Merci.) 



Nineteenth Century English Literature ii 

Keats the chief influence of I'art pour Vart in England. The 
Pre-Pre-Raphaehte. "Keats begot Tennyson, and Tennyson begot 
the rest" (Saintsbury). To estimate his position is to weigh art 
and morals. Keats unmoral, but not immoral. To Carlyle his 
poetry ''dead dog." For others it belongs to "the regions which 
are Holy Land." 

Scott 

"Wer den Dichter will verstehen 
Muss in Dichters Lande gehen." 

(Scotice: Every land has its laugh.) A far cry from Scott's 
out-of-doors Romance to in-doors aestheticism of today. Anec- 
dote of soldiers' appreciation of Marmion when read under fire. 
"Not often that martial poetry has been put to such a test" (Hut- 
ton). Mr. Arthur Symons asks: "A test of what?" Answer: 
Of power to arrest attention in distracting circumstances. (Imagine 
London Nights read during a bombardment.) "The mountain and 
the squirrel had a quarrel" — rather the oak and the orchid. Best 
admit, "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays" 
— and that of Walter Scott was surely right. 

Scott's education began at least six generations before he was 
born, Edinburgh, 1771. Hard-fighting, cattle-lifting ancestry. Uni- 
versity. Law. Tall, muscular, lame, young man with passion for 
old stories of border Ufe. The method of collecting them — his- 
torical research on the ran-dan. Influence of German Romanticism. 
Translation of Biirger's Leonore, 1795. Scott's steed less spectral 
and more spirited than its German sire. Desire for "skull and two 
cross-bones" (Contrast quality of Shelley's youthful interest in 
supernatural). Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, the result 
of the joyous "raids." Lay of the Last Minstrel, 1805. "If there 
be any good about my poetry or prose either, it is a hurried frank- 
ness of composition which pleases soldiers, sailors and young people 
of bold and active dispositions." Marmion. "The tale of Flodden 
Fight I verily believe is the best battle-piece in all the poetry of all 
time" (Andrew Lang). Lady of the Lake, 1810. 

Waverley, begun 1805, and left off. Found again ("looking one 
day for fishing-tackle") and published 1814. x^nonymous, and 
so a second independent fame achieved. Enormous popularity 
ot this, and the twenty-six other works of prose fiction written in 
next seventeen years. Identity not acknowledged until 1827. "The 
big bo\v-wow strain." Splashing at ten-league historic canvas. Con- 
trast paralysis of exact scholarship. Scott made the dead bones rise 
and live — even if sometimes as mixed as Shakespeare's. Modern 



12 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

osteology classifies correctly, and leaves in the museum case. Simi- 
lar use of big strokes in depicting incident or character. Pictorial 
quality of the description. ("Scene fit for the brush of some great 
master,'' etc.) Scenes recorded as they affect the eye rather than 
the understanding. Out-of-doors atmosphere with its lack of sub- 
tlety, and its virtues of healthiness and power. Many a "crowded 
hour of glorious life" as the siege of Front de Boeuf's castle or the 
fight at Drumclog. Love scenes as poor as battles good. "A 
certain breezy bachelorhood, almost essential to the literature of 
adventure" (Chesterton). Dramatic situations, as Duke of Bur- 
gundy learning of the Bishop's death, and Henry Morton, condemned 
by the covenanters, waiting his execution. The humor of the Scotch 
character as in Andrew Fairservice and Caleb Balderstone. Pathos 
of Mucklebackit repairing boat after son's death, and the superb 
trial scene in Waverley. Scott's work is greatest in such cases as 
last, where, like Wordsworth in Michel, he quarries his stuff from 
life about him, looking unto the rock whence he was hewn. Ob- 
jectivity makes his medievalism often physical rather than spiritual, 
describing delight of battle and banquet rather than ecstacies of 
lover or saint. Yet, with all his defects, one of the greatest forces 
in the Renascence of Wonder, 

Later years. The glories of Abbotsford. Carlyle's dour stric- 
tures. "It's ill talking between a full man and a fasting," and 
Carlyle could not understand the psychology of feasting. Baronet, 
1820. Financial reverses, 1826, and the debt of honor paid with 
his life. Death, 1832. 

Thomas Carlyle 

His work historical, didactic, and ethical. Transcendental, in- 
stead of Romantic. A true poet, who could not write verse. The 
strongest voice of the century. Its carrying power less proved, but 
where it carries it wakens. 

Like Scott's, a Scotch family, unversed in letters, flowering in 
one genius. Unlike Scott, Carlyle indifferent to feudal tradition. 
Forms and elegancies disdained by a man whose father had 
built his house with his own hands. Least literary of literary 
men. Born 1795 at Ecclefechan. Stern bringing up. School-life, 
etc., reflected in Sartor. Walk to Edinburgh University at 14. 
Early tribulations, economic, stomachic, and spiritual. German 
translations and reviews (1821-1827). Marriage to Jane Welsh, 
1826. Craigenputtock and Sartor Resartus, not published as book 
until 1836. London. French Revolution. Soul and fortunes saved 
— happiness, for most part, lost. Past and Present, 1843, Crom- 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 13 

well, 1845. Frederick completed 1865. Next year address as Lord 
Rector of Edinburgh University, followed by death of Mrs. Car- 
lyle. Lonely years of remorseful self -accusations until death, 1881. 

Froude's Carlyle, the sad but impressive story of the "bewildered 
wrestlings." The battle which continues to rage over the weary 
old man's grave. Froude stands convicted of some misstatement 
and much brilliancy. A book, which read with proper reverence, 
must purge with pity and terror, and do good. 

Carlyle's style shows his most marked attribute — Force. Every- 
thing sacrificed to emphasis. Metaphoric nature. It "glows in 
the flush of health and vigorous self-growth . . . not without 
an apoplectic tendency" (Sartor). Force equally shown in all his 
thought. A great humorist, with a laugh "like the neighing of all 
Tattersall's." (Contrast Teufelsdrockh's laugh with the thin glee, 
aping robustiousness, of the kings in The Princess.) Thoroughly 
Teutonic humor, best when most serious. 

Carlyle's theories of history and government, anathema in both 
Liberal and Tory camps, and he an Ishmaelite. Hero-Worship and 
Aristocracy of Talent. To the question, "How catch your hare?" 
he offered a solution which has proved unpopular, and been so far 
only partially attempted: "Poenitentiam agite!" His doctrine of 
Individualism. Right makes might, with the qualification (often 
forgotten) "in the long run." Carlyle's Hero the father of Nietz- 
sche's Uehermensch. 

Ethically his chief lesson Courage. Doctrine of Work and through 
Work, Faith. His "conversion" (Teufelsdrockh's "baphometic fire- 
baptism") characteristically reaches climax less in supplication 
to God than in Defiance of the Devil. Doctrine of Renunciation of 
Happiness, for which he has been much censured. Like the solemn 
terrier {Rab and His Friends) "life was full o' sairiousness — 
he just never could get eneuch o' fechtin'." Rather the waeful 
heart of a poet which nothing could cure. Congenital "Zahnweh im 
Herzen." See apostrophe to dead mother in Journal: "Your poor 
Tom, long out of his schooldays now, has fallen very lonely, very 
lame and broken in this pilgrimage of his," etc. 

A man of religion, but without traditional dogma in which to 
express it. His "Exodus from Houndsditch" more and more com- 
plete with time. A mystic who substitutes the one universal miracle 
(see Natural Supernatvralism in Sartor) for many. Philosoph- 
ically a Monist, but with practical sense of reality of evil, and of 
Dualism's eternal duel. (Contrast Emerson's serene faith in The 
One.) Theoretically an optimist, but temperamental pessimism 
grew with time. Contempt, not unmixed with fear, for Science. 



14 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

Easy now to show where many of his shafts went wild — but no 
one can bend his bow. A great fighter. Now every puny whipster 
gets his sword, and it concerns him not at all. 

RUSKIN 

Like his acknowledged master, Carlyle, an ethical teacher. Un- 
like him, a revealer of Art and Beauty as well. A less strong man, 
but one of far wider interests. Just about the middle of his career 
the message of Beauty changed to that of Duty. 

Born 1819 at London. Son of rich wine merchant. On both 
sides Scotch Puritan stock. The strange and precocious childhood 
revealed in Praeterita. Favorite reading, Bible, Scott, and Pope's 
Homer (Sundays Robinson Crusoe and Pilgrim's Progress). "Ma- 
ternal installation" of his mind with result in his own (unfair) 
words that he became "a troublesome and conceited little monkey." 
Travelling by coach with parents and early love of Nature. Rid- 
ing school but could never learn to sit a horse. Oxford, 1840 — 
with his mother. Tolerated by ''bloods" of Christ Church for 
goodness of his temper, wit, and sherry. First volume, Modern 
Painters, 1842 — original title Turner and the Ancients. Effect on 
public taste. The Acadamician's Lament in Punch ''savage Ruskin 
Sticks his tusk in And nobody will buy." Seven Lamps of Archi- 
tecture, 1849; Pre-Raphaelitism, 1851; Stones of Venice, 1851-53. 
Art should, express the life and character of the artist. The author's 
own preference for early Italian painting and Gothic architecture. 
In i860, Unto This Last attacked political economists with text, 
"Life is Wealth." First avowedly ethical work, but even before 
had taught the foundation of Art in moral character. Followed 
by Sesame and Lillies, and Crown of Wild Olive which continue 
the arraignment of modern society. Various possible reasons for 
change of note: marriage and divorce; Carlyle's influence; grow- 
ing sense of world's misery, and growing sense of personal un- 
happiness. From this time life devoted to bring about the practical 
adoption of Christian ethics, though Ruskin a member of no church. 
The beauty of words and nobleness of message impaired at times 
by whimsicality and hysteria. Denunciation of all machinery. St. 
George Guild founded 1871, required pure gold and silver coins, 
and no use of steam power. Such absurdities in Fors Clavigera 
(1871-84) reflect actual alienation of later years before the end, 
1900. 

In personal intercourse Ruskin impressed one "more vividly with 
a sense of intense personality" than any of his great contempo- 
raries (Frederick Harrison). As kind as brilliant. The sadness 



Al net cent Ji Century English Literature 15 

of his life more pathetic than Carlyle's. Omnia relinquit pro publico 
— and he could feel no sense of reward. His Style added another 
keyboard to English Prose. Drenched even the gray sands of 
economics with the crimson of his heart's passion. Compared with 
Carlyle's as the arrows of Apollo to Miolnir. 

Dickens and Thackeray 

Carlyle's contempt for fiction in general and for Dickens ("Schnus- 
pel, the distinguished Novelist" of Past and Present) in particular. 
But in a sense these novelists deal particularly with fact. The de- 
scription of Dickens as '"Special Correspondent to Posterity*', ap- 
plicable to both. (George Eliot rather Special Lecturer to the Con- 
temporaneous; Trollope Recording Secretary to Society; and 
George Meredith Impressionistic X-Ray Photographer of Cerebral 
Interiors.) 

Dickens and Thackeray as expression of EngHsh Lower Middle 
and Upper Middle classes. Color vs. Form. The "gentleman" shi- 
boleth. Contrast the conversation on blood at the Waterbrooks 
(David Copperfield) with the Christmas Hymn, ''Be each, pray God, 
a gentleman" (Doctor Birch's School). IdeaHzation of the Indi- 
vidual vs. Idealization of the Ideal. Both Liberal Reformers. 

Dickens (1812-70). The poor boy of Copperfield. Other family 
portraits. Newspaper training. Popularity of Pickwick, 1836, fol- 
lowed by Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickelby. The tireless flood 
of creation. Copperfield, 1849. The histrionic hunger, and its satis- 
faction in lecturing — "as like one of these harlotry players as 
ever I see." Unsatisfactory marriage: David and Agnes placed 
in real life instead of fiction. The hungry heart insatiable 
for "pudding-praise." A dram-drinker of Fancy and Opti- 
mism who died of emotional delirium tremens. (But such cavilling 
ceases at thought of the inimitable genius.) The most remarkable 
aspect of the w^ork, the Creative Force which supplied it — the spon- 
taneity and ceaselessness of the flow of Fancy. Shows best in 
Humor. Best when most absurd, but always saturated with warm 
geniality. (Contrast Mark Twain's literary hard high spirits like a 
high dry wind.) Bob Sawyer's story of boy with beads in stomach. 
Mr. Pecksniff getting drunk. Madman throwing vegetables to Mrs. 
Nickelby. Pathos. At its best a climbing sorrow which will not 
down. Tiny Tim. At its worst an hydraulic pump with lachrymal 
duct attachment — but with long use its tears are dry. Mystery. A 
sense of foreboding as dim and heavy as a dream's. Storm in 
Copperfield. Note too use of melodramatic stage effects. 

Thackeray (181 1-63) Charterhouse School and Cambridge. Con- 



1 6 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

tinental travel. Loss of money through gambling. Painting and 
Literature. Slower fame than Dickens'. Vanity Fair, 1846. 
Tragedy of marriage. Visits to America. Physical contrasts to 
the small and energetic Dickens. "Young Cornish giant" (6 feet 4) 
with streak of melancholy sloth. ''A big fellow, soul and body. . . . 
chaotic in all points except his outer breeding.... A big, fierce, 
weeping, hungry man'' (Carlyle). Literary style, elegant, Ad- 
disonian, easy, like good manners invisible and unconsciously en- 
joyed. In both style and thought a traditional element. Love for 
i8th century makes Henry Esmond vital. Genial lazy mellow schol- 
arship. Humor, more subtle and less laugh-compelling than Dick- 
ens. Becky at the Sedleys. Pen's grande passion. The former 
reproach of Cynic, but compared with Ibsen's pessimism, as the 
Angostura bitters in an old gentleman's toddy to the typhoid germs 
in a baby's milk. His cynicism merely the disposition to see things 
as they are. Sad but kindly resignation to fact that life and Ro- 
mantic Fiction differ. Pathos, never forced. Colonel Newcome 
coming in alone and hearing the laughter of Clive and his friends. 
Two opposing elements in Thackeray's work: (i) The Admiration 
for the Gentleman, (2) The Mockery for the Snob. Into (i) he put 
a fine faith in tradition, decency, courage, and gentleness. Yet be- 
cause his spiritual sympathy is not wider he is to W. E. Henley the 
Great Philistine. Vix Justus sit securus. (2) Snobishness "the 
mean admiration of mean things." Thackeray a liberal reformer 
though he worked by disintegration, not by explosion as Dickens. 
Henry Esmond as a growth of liberalism. 

Tennyson 

The most representative voice of the century. Unequalled for 
variety of subject and perfection of form. Singer of Art, Nature, 
Myth, Patriotism, Social Conditions, Science, Philosophy, and Re- 
ligion. 

A fitting personality for the high office. His beauty and dignity 
of person. The ideal vates sacer, oracular and remote from ways 
of ordinary men, but filled with sense of a sacred mission, and 
desire to consecrate his life to its service. Fortunate circumstances 
gave opportunity. Contrast serene well-ordered life with turbulent 
course of earlier Romantic poets. Born, 1809 {annus mirabilis of 
great births). Father, Anglican minister. Early training for poetic 
career with Thomson and Pope as set copy. Poems by Two 
Brothers, 1826, with brother Charles. Cambridge (1828-31) which 
"did not feed the heart," through its teachers at least. But here 
the "Apostles," that "band of youthful friends" who held debate. 



NineteentJi Century English Literature 17 

Among them Arthur Hallam, who died 1833. Poems in 1830 and 
1832. Harsh criticism of the second volume keenly felt by Tenny- 
son. Silence of ten years. The noble harvest in 1842 volume. 
Money losses and ill health. Pension, 1845, after Peel's reading of 
Ulysses. The Princess, 1847. 1850, marriage, publication of In 
Memoriam, and Laureate on Wordsworth's death. Maud, 1855. 
Idylls of the King begun 1859. Dramas. Last volumes, with Death 
of Oenone, year of death, 1892. The fitting end of the noble life. 

Early poems show lyric melody and influence of Keats, expressing 
pure beauty in exquisite art. Largely pictorial, with Pre-Raphael- 
like detail and decoration. Lady of Shallot typical. Even in this 
period, the ethical message, as in Palace of Art, which uses su- 
premest art to condemn the right of Art to be supreme. The unique 
distinction of this in Tennyson. Unequalled as the inspired artificer 
of phrase and cadence. The onomatopoeia of such lines as 
"The moan of doves in immemorial elms 
And murmur of innumerable bees," 
(favorites of his own) 
or 

"By the long wash of Australasian seas.'' 

At times a tendency to polish individual gems rather than regard 
their setting. Closeness of natural observation. Mr. Holbrook 
(Cranford) ignorant that ash buds are black in March — "till this 
young man comes and tells me." At times (particularly in later 
poems) elaborate i8th century euphemism to avoid unpoetic words. 
"The foaming grape of eastern France" for Champagne. Akin 
to this the overelaborate or recondite comparisons as the 

"deep vase of chilling tears 
That grief has shaken into frost." 
But such faults "the wandering isles of night" with which "the 
very source and fount of day is dash'd." They may be left to the 
professional astronomers of criticism. 

Edv/ard Fitzgerald thought Tennyson reached his poetic climax 
in 1842, and never after recaptured "the old Champagne flavor." 
Later poems show the Seer rather than the Painter, although his 
palette never dried. In Memoriam, the lament for the loved friend, 
Arthur Hallam, most important religious poem of the century. 
Taine's absurd criticism of ''elegy spoken in a dress-suit." A sin- 
cere lament of personal sorrow (contrast Adonais), but more im- 
portant as reflection of religious doubts occasioned by scientific 
thought of the time. The author "faces the spectres of the mind," 
and though so "perplexed in faith'' as to recognize the "faith in 
honest doubt," and "to falter where he firmly trod" yet continues 



i8 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

to hold to his beHef in God and personal immortality. Once thought 
over-bold it now seems to many timid. Frederick Harrison con- 
temptuously says it "has made Tennyson the idol of the Anglican 
clergyman — the world in which he was born and the world in 
which his life was ideally past." Charles Kingsley — such a clergy- 
man — put it next to the Psalms of David, and it has been the ex- 
pression of belief for many strong and wise men. The importance 
of Tennyson's recognition of Science not to be ignored. No other 
great singer has done so to an equal degree. Shelley's is merely 
aesthetic and not to be compared. At same time one wishes the 
recognition could sometimes have been more cordial. In certain 
later poems (like Fastness) there is, as with Carlyle, an apparent 
angry fear of the thought which is derided. This contrasts un- 
pleasantly with the simple, but deep reply when 
"like a man in wrath the heart 

Stood up and answered, T have felt.' " 
The poet declared that he had ''the black blood of the Tennysons", 
and wrote 

"Immeasurable sadness 
And I know it as a poet." 
A far cry from much bumptious cynicism, and complacent pessi- 
mism of to-day, but it explains somewhat the attitude to science 
which then seemed to mean crude materialism. 

The black blood also marked in Maud which (if one deeper dive 
by the spirit's sense) is self -revealing though dramatic. Nowhere 
are the lyrics so perfect except in The Princess. The Idylls, apart 
from being the most successful treatment of the Arthur legends, 
remarkable for the handling of blank verse. But Tennyson's fame, 
apart from his wide variety, rests chiefly on three aspects, (i) 
Beauty of lyrical melody. (2) Perfection of artistic workmanship. 
(3) The brave and earnest attempt to find light in a time of twi- 
light. 

"And yet we trust that somehow good 
Is yet the final goal of ill." 

Browning 

The century's voice of energy and soul-analysis, as Tennyson 
of beauty and world-contemplation. Their various contrasts : the 
Grotesque vs. the Harmonious; the Dramatic vs. the Lyrical; the 
Wonder of the Individual in se vs. the Wonder of the Cosmos as 
seen by an Individual. 

Browning born three years after Tennyson and died three years 
before. For their friendship, verse-capping, and mutual apprecia- 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 19 

tion see the Tennyson Memoir. Browning's, like Goethe's, ideal 
life-setting for a poet. His remarkable father and "dear old Cam- 
berwell." The long-haired young Romanticist. London University, 
1830. Choice of poetic career, with Johnson's Dictionary as first 
text-book. Pauline, 1833, with tribute to Shelley, the "Sun-treader." 
(Compare Memorahilia.) Porphyria, first and typical dramatic lyric. 
Contrast the madness with that of Maud. The fruitful years of 
Paracelsus, 1835, and the dramas. Bells and Pomegranates, 1841- 
43. Dramatic Lyrics, Pippa Passes. Italian journeys and their 
sunny influence on the poetry. Marriage 1846. As with Tenny- 
son, proof, in earlier romanticists' despite, that intensity and beauty 
of life may be compatible with order and tradition. To Godwin et 
Cie. regular marriage is dry chopped fodder — to Browning iUicit 
relations are "bog, clay, and rubble, sand, and stark black dearth." 
Here as elsewhere Bronming stands for Militant Virtue — a Cham- 
pion, not an Apologist. The Dedication of Men and Women, 1855. 
Mrs. Browning's death, i86t. (See the fierce lines to Fitzgerald — 
last ever written — and the old man's "I felt as if she had died yes- 
terday.") Later years and gradual recognition by the 
"British Public, ye who like me not 
(God love you!)" 

Ring and the Book, 1868, a problem of evil viewed through ten 
different sets of eyes. Later years full of honors. Asolando, 1889, 
year of death, the last brave shout of 

"One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, 

Never doubted clouds would break." 
Compare the equally characteristic and noble valediction of Cross- 
ing the Bar. 

Browning the man produced one chief impression — virile vitality. 
This obtains in mind and morals no less than body, and is equally 
remote from the Puritanic or the Bohemian. Conventional dress 
and bearing contrasted with Tennyson, the poet and seer. Vital 
energy's various channels — sculpture, music, study, and poetry. 
Obscurity of his poetry largely a result of this mental energy which 
does not wait for the slower reader to catch up. Allied to this is 
the love of the Grotesque ("Energy and Joy, the father and mother 
of the grotesque. Chesterton's Broivning). Significant that Brown- 
ing, Senior, fond of drawing, "could never draw a pretty face." 
The poet reclaimed regions- of supposed ugliness which poetry had 
vacated since the Middle Ages. Naturalism goes farther than 
Wordsworth's for it deals with things of city and later times. The 
"blue spurt of a lighted match" becomes a Thing of Beauty. "Art 
was given for that." (See passage in Fra Lippo Lippi.) Dramatic 



20 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

poivcr. Great intellectual energy and curiosity projects him into 
souls of other men and women. Peculiar interest in problems of 
evil, but never morbid. The robust optimism which declared God 
in his Heaven and all right in the world, except negation. Condem- 
nation of "The unlit lamp and the ungirt loin." ''Enthusiasm's 
the best thing, I repeat." His own hope is ''that sun will pierce 
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched." Other lighters can keep 
a bold heart in face of the enemy, but none such a light one. Like 
Tennyson, the emphatic assertion of personal immortality: 
"O thou Soul of my Soul! I shall clasp thee again, 
And with God be the rest!" 
Browning lacks simple sweetness of melody, and proper restraint. 
For many readers, a lens, so highly magnifying that it distorts 
vision. For others he is the greatest poet of the century: the poet 
of Hope, at once sane and splendid, of Hope inspired by Love. 
Both the 

"Lyric love, half Angel and half Bird" 
and the love of the incarnate God, 

"Thou shalt love and be loved by forever." 

Matthew Arnold 

Poet singing the dirge of Faith, and the promise of compensatory 
Stoicism. Literary Critic teaching distinction and appreciation. 
Theological Critic fighting the Letter with the Spirit. Apostle of 
Culture. 

A charming companion and a good man but his life without the 
picturesque incident or personal zest of the preceding poets. A 
domesticated genius. Ithuriel in evening clothes. 

Born 1822. Son of Dr. Arnold of Rugby. Winchester, Rugby, 
Oxford. Lay Inspector of Schools 1851-86. Professor of Poetry, 
Oxford 1857-67. Last volume of poems, 1867. Most important 
critical writings : Essays in Criticism, 1865 and Literature and 
Dogma, 1873. Two visits to America, where he lectured. Death, 
1888. 

The Poet. Comparatively small volume of verse and very small 
range of compass. Two chief notes : ( i ) The Elegiac which sings 
the requiem of a dead faith; (2) The stoical self-dependence, which 
brings, if not joy, at least calm and courageous resignation. Dover 
Beach and A Summer Nnight show "High Seriousness" and wist- 
ful, poignant regret. A refined and spiritual Neo-Byronism, mourn- 
ing lost belief, instead of lost happiness. But on the whole the 
hopeful note of "who finds himself loses his misery." Rugby 
Chapel, tribute to his father; Thyrsis to Arthur Hugh Clough 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 21 

(whose work represents same spiritual doubts. ''Carlyle brought 
us into the wilderness, and left us there.") Arnold's chief fault 
a lack of melody. (Contrast however The Forsaken Merman and 
A Requiem.) Certain wooden lines "which those may scan who 
have the power, and those may like who scan" (Herbert W. 
Paul). Arnold's strangely mistaken estimate of the superiority 
of his poetry to Tennyson's and Browning's. Desertion of poetry 
for prose. 

The Literary Critic. Doctrines of disinterestedness, of the Zeit- 
geist, and of appreciation. Intuitive method opposed to Johnsonian 
classical deductive criticism, as well as to modern scientific analysis. 
Function of criticism to learn the best that has been said and 
thought in the world, and sew in society the seeds of a creative age. 
Requirements of High Seriousness and the Grand Style. Classical 
taste, and a certain distrust of Romanticism. Poetry to replace 
much of what is now religion and philosophy, Arnold's own ex- 
cellent, urbane, and easy style. Power of coining telling phrases. 

The Theological Critic. Arnold "combined a sincere devotion to 
the Christian religion with a faculty for presenting it in a form 
recognizable by neither friend or foe" (Gladstone). Perhaps vision 
of both has since cleared. "Religion is morality touched with emo- 
tion." Aberglaube. Bible written in literary not scientific spirit. 
For conception of God as "a manified, non-natural man" sub- 
stitutes "the Something, not ourselves, which makes for Righteous- 
ness." 

Apostle of Culture. Desire of the Greek spirit for perfection, 
development in all things. (But "conduct is three fourths of life.") 
Battle of Sweetness and Light against Provinciality and Philistinism. 
For brilliant (and unfair) satire see Frederick Harrison's Culture, 
a Dialogue. Arnold's judgments on- American life, "so uninterest- 
ing, so without savor and without depth." Question of effect of his 
teachings on America. Culture as a "Morison's pill." Like the 
Waldorf, "an institution for the propagation of exclusiveness 
among the masses." Comparative quaUties of Culture, fresh and 
canned. 

ROSSETTI AND SwiNBURNE 

Leaders of the Pagan Revolt against formal and ugly Morality. 
Neo-Romanticists. The pursuit of Beauty for herself. Art for 
Art's sake. Their lives, by their own theories, should not influence 
judgment of their work, but opposite view (right or wrong) is 
usual in English Literature. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-1882. Three of his grandparents 



22 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

Italian. Entered Maddox Brown's studio, 1847. Subsequent illus- 
trious career as a painter of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The 
Germ, 1850. Marriage to Elizabeth Siddall, i860. Her death two 
years later. The wretched story of the poems MS. Poems, 1870. 
Ballads and Sonnets, 1881. The darkening years. 

Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1837-1909. Aristocratic connec- 
tions. Oxford 1857, and friendship formed with William Morris, 
Burne-Jones, and Rossetti. Atalanta in Calydon, 1864. Poems and 
Ballads, 1866. Songs before Sunrise, iSyi. Much subsequent 
verse, including many dramas, the last The Duke of Gandia, 1908. 
Critical prose writings on Shakespeare and other EHzabethans, and 
on contemporaries. 

Rossetti's (originally) a vigorous and dominant personality, with 
much of the interest of the early Romanticists. His eccentricities ; 
the wombat on the epergne. Swinburne's personality, on other 
hand, left little record. A great swimmer (like Byron and Foe), 
and extemporiser (story of storm). But best to appreciate poetry 
of either one must first pass "out of space, out of time." (Contrast 
natural setting of poems of Browning, Tennyson, and Arnold.) 
Spirit of Keats, made more subtile and more sensuous. On one 
side Rossetti and Swinburne show extreme Idealism (at least Uft- 
realism.) — on the other Sensuousness approaching Sensuality. Com- 
pare Buchannan's attack. The Fleshly School of Poetry. (Dissec- 
tion with a moral meat axe.) ''Neither poetic, nor manly, nor even 
human, to obtrude such things as the themes of whole poems. It is 
simply nasty." Though some of this deserved, it overlooks the 
meaning of such poetry historically considered. As Wordsworth 
an extender of the domains of poetry into regions previously com- 
monplace, so these poets extend them into the kingdoms of Old 
Night, and of Death and Sin. They also represent a monistic in- 
fluence (but aesthetic not moral), which refuses to see any dualism 
between matter and spirit: 

"Whose speech Truth knows not from her thought, 
Nor Love her body from her soul." 
To which Hebraism answers : "The Hfe is more than meat, and the 
body is more than raiment." 

Rossetti's work. ( i ) Ballads. Influence of Coleridge. Compare 
more intimate sense of medievalism with Scott's greater vigor. 
Translation of Villon's ''Ballad of Dead Ladies/' "Everyone trans- 
lates it nowadays [1901] as everyone used to translate Biirgers bal- 
lad. It is the 'Leonore' of the neo-romanticists" (Beers. History 
of Eng. Romanticism, iQth Century). Sister Helen. (2) Lyrics. 
Poe's influence. Many of the qualities of the P-R-B paintings. A 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 23 

studied simplicity. Archaisms and scriptural language. Language 
now gauntly severe, now elaborately ornamental. The magical 
landscape of dreams. Indoor outdoors : the artist like Marley's 
ghost, provided with an atmosphere of his own. The Blessed 
Damozel. (3) The House of Life. A praise of love, but pessi- 
mistic in tone, — "The ground-swirl of the wither'd leaves of Hope." 

Swinburne, compared with Rossetti, less subtile and more sweet. 
For pure melody and command of metrical variety, unsurpassed in 
English. Its prosperity lies in ear of hearer. In improper doses 
cloying, but in proper doses and to the proper ears, the most in- 
toxicating of verse. Sidney Lanier's dictum : "Pepper and salt 
served in vessels of gold and silver." The contents not condiments 
but wine. Such alcohol may or may not be a spiritual food, but 
none the less it has spiritual uses. Swinburne's chief notes are 
those of (i) the Erotic, (2) the Sea, (3) Liberty. Through these 
runs at times a pessimism which is that of revolt ("Hymn of Man," 
Atalanta) or of wistful regret {The Forsaken Garden). 

Swinburne's prose is at best sonorous and impassioned — at worst 
rabid and hysterical. Contrast the earlier fine tribute to Byron with 
the later polysyllabic hypertrophy of screaming invective — "vulgar 
and violent resources of rant and cant and glare and splash and 
splutter," etc. etc. 

Kinship to Rossetti and Swinburne in Pater, Wilde, and Celtic 
school. 

Stevenson 

The Story-Teller in an age of Fact. The Essayist and Stylist. 
The Lay-Preacher of Optimism. The well-loved Personality. 

Born, 1850, Edinburgh. As a child sickly, and with much knowl- 
edge of "the pleasant land of counterpane." Edinburgh University, 
1867. "All through my boyhood and youth I was known and 
pointed out for the pattern of an idler; and yet I was always busy 
on my own private end, which was to learn to write." Reading 
for the bar to which called, 1875. Meanwhile troubles of spiritual 
doubts with the stern faith of his fathers, and breakdown in health 
from the uncongenial climate. Fontainbleau and companionship 
of artists. A Lodging for the Night — perhaps his best short story 
and if so, perhaps the best in English — 1877. To America, 1879. 
Illness and marriage, 1880. Verginibus Pucrisque, 1881. Kidnap- 
ped, 1886 and its sequel David Balfour, 1893. In 1890 to Apia, 
Samoa, where he died, 1890. Among other work: (i) Essays, 
Familiar Studies, Memories and Portraits, (2) Poetry, Child's 
Garden of Verse, Underwoods, (3) Fiction, Prince Otto, Merry 
Men, Master of Ballantrac, St. Lues. Letters also pubHshed. 



24 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

As a story-teller Stevenson is the grandchild of Scott, whom he 
greatly reverenced. He blew upon the dying embers of romantic 
adventure and rekindled them. With his joy in exquisite phrasing 
went joy of the open road as well. His contempt for the realist's 
(here Henry James') attempt to "compete with life," "armed with 
a tube of superior flake-white to paint the portrait of the insuffer- 
able sun." Interest less in character dissection or plot construction 
than in a vivid and romantic sense of situation. (The escape of 
David and Alan in Kidnapped: "I had the taste of sleep in my 
throat" etc.) Small use of love scenes. (David Balfour has most.) 
Kidnapped, of the longer fiction has no women. The supernatural 
or horrible well conceived, as in Ollala, The Merry Men, Thrawn 
Janet. This fascinatingly combined with a certain symbolic or alle- 
goric character as in Markheim, Will o' the Mill, The Ebb-Tide. 
Humor extravagant as in New Arabian Nights, or delicate and sym- 
pathetic. Treasure of Franchard. 

As essayist the style attracts first attention. The essays "smelt a 
trifle of the lamp, and were therefore dear to some and an offence 
to others" (Andrew Lang). At times spun in too elaborate a pat- 
tern of preciosity, but at worst an exquisite weaving of silk 
and gold. Later essays more simple. 

Virginibus Puerisque, a whimsical but sincere defence of youth 
and its generous follies against prudence and the police. Aes 
Triplex and The British Admirals, typical expressions of the 
author's high courage. Later essays, such as Pulvis et Umbra, 
more sombre in tone, but courage equally unshaken. Interesting 
recognition of scientific formulas. "Of the Kosmos in the last 
resort, science reports many doubtful things and all of them ap- 
palling." Yet man sees a kinship of courage through all existence 
and must not despair. Stevenson acknowledges influence of Her- 
bert Spencer. Another influence, Walt Whitman, whose op- 
timism his own resembles. Without Browning's health he shows a 
similar joy in living. Contrast Byron, Carlyle, and Swinburne, 
all pessimists, though wearing their rue with such a difference. 
The charm of Stevenson's personality largely dependent on this 
capacity for happiness. And to thousands who never saw him, 
his spell has been markedly personal. See description in sonnet 
Apparition by Henley (later Burker of dead friend's reputation). 
R. L. S. of the Letters. See lines beginning: 

"Say not of me that v/eakly I declined." 
"Glad did I live and gladly die, 
And I lay me down with a will." 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 25 

Kipling and Wells 

The reflectors of modern England from its opposed sides of 
Imperialism and Socialism. The Romance of Things as They Are 
vs. The Wrong of Things as They Are. The remedy of The 
National Ideal vs. The remedy of Applied Science. 

Rudyard Kipling born Bombay, 1865, School Hfe in English 
public school. Newspaper work, India, 1882-89. Travels in many 
strange lands, including America, told with zest of a young Ulysses 
of Journalism in From Sea to Sea. Departmental Ditties, 1886, and 
Plain Tales from the Hills, 1887. In next three years a large num- 
ber of short stories dealing chiefly with India, and comprising his 
best work. Among later works: Light That Failed, 1891, Barrack 
Room Ballads, 1892, Seven Seas, 1896, Day's Work, 1898, Kim, 
1 90 1, Five Nations, 1903. Traffic and Discoveries, 1904, Rewards 
and Fairies, 19 10. 

As literature (as contrasted with work of more cultural or philo- 
sophic interest) Kipling's is easily the strongest and most original 
modern voice. Early work shows influence of Swinburne (surging 
language) ; Browning (unconventional actuality) ; James Thomp- 
son (brutal pessimism) ; and Bret Harte (short-story genre of life 
in new lands). His two chief aspects: (i) The Prophet of Eng- 
land's Destiny. (2) The Discerner of Romance in a mechanical 
age. Under (i) comes the glamor which he has thrown (or re- 
placed) upon military life. Yet this in spite of a realism often 
hard and brutal, ''as pointed as a bayonet and as delicate as a gun- 
butt." In both prose and poetry, the evident belief that it is the 
manifest destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race to conquer and colonize 
the rest of the world. 

''For the Lord om- God most High, 
He hath made the deep as dry. 

He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the Earth !" 
Expression of this idea in A Song of the English, Recessional, and 
The Explorer. 

"Its God's present to our nation, 

Anybody might have found it but — His Whisper came to me." 

Frequent use of the Deity's name, but no way of judging how 
literally Kipling believes that God fights for the English, as the 
old Hebrews believed he fought for Israel. (2) Here Kipling's 
greatest power. No modern has shown to like degree that 

"all unseen 
Romance; brings up the nine-fifteen." 

Where the muses of others have fled shrieking from machinery, 
his own has embraced it — and got a bit grimey in consequence. 



26 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

"I'm sick of all their quirks and turns — the loves and doves they 

dream — 
Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to sing the Song O' Steam!" 

(For criticism of the grime see Buchanan's Voice of the Hooli- 
gan. ) As Rossetti, trying to show the transcendental quality of sense 
impressions often shows only sense, so Kipling trying to show the 
Romance of machinery often shows only machinery. Yet the at- 
tempt to accept modern life and find its aesthetic values, very in- 
teresting. A more charming aspect of his Romance is that con- 
cerned with far-away lands, particularly India, e. g. Namgy Doola 
and "the smell of the Himalayas at evening," or the emotional stab 
of Without Benefit of Clergy. Kipling knows the route of the Old 
Three-Decker, and the Trail that Is Always New. 

Wells doesn't believe it exists — at least not for the average Eng- 
lishman. Herbert George Wells, born 1866. Student of Royal 
College of Science where he took first honors in Zoology. Joint 
author of text book on same subject. For many years a convert 
to Socialism, and a member of the Fabian Society. Select Conver- 
sations with an Uncle, 1895. Light fun-froth of admirable fooling. 
Island of Dr. Moreau, first of a number of pseudo-science stories 
including War of the Worlds, 1898. Jules Verne stiffened with 
some real science, and warmed (as in In the Days of the Cornet) 
with sociological interest. Expositions of Socialism or sociological 
ideals: Anticipations, 1901, Mankind in the Making, New Worlds 
for Old. Fiction dealing with similar matters : Kipps, 1905. Tono- 
Bungay, History of Mr. Polly, Anne Veronica, New Machiavelli, 
1911. 

Like Shaw, W^lls stands for attempt to apply results of science 
to individual and collective life through legislative socialism. So- 
cialism including the taking on by state-government of various 
functions now in the hands of individuals, and an entire or con- 
siderable reduction of private property. The Socialism of the 
Fabians differs from that of Marx and earlier teachers in effecting 
its results gradually and not by revolution, and in freeing itself from 
restricted connection with laboring class. It has "made socialism 
respectable." Wells believes humanity can take itself in hand and 
by reforms — economic and hygienic — make itself something like 
Supermen. Flis fiction largely an exposition of the absurdity of 
the old methods accomplished with admirable humor, e. g. Kipp's 
career in good society or Mr. Polly's married life. The note often 
more dubious, even pessimistic, as at end of Tono-Biingay. Dispo- 
sition to look all Gorgons, social and philosophic, squarely in the 
eyes. Growing dubiety of Ultimate Issues, without loss of cheer- 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 27 

fulness and courage. On the whole Wells opens (or smashes) a 
window, and lets in air stimulating for its higher percentage of 
oxygen, even when it smells of the city street. 

Shaw and Chesterton 

Both alike in fantastic popularization of serious dogma, though 
one would break with the past, and the other return to it. 

George Bernard Shaw, born Dublin, 1856. ''A typical Irishman; 
my family came from Yorkshire." Protestant Irish type like Swift. 
Fight with poverty. The acetic ascetic Bohemian. Love Among 
the Artists and other novels, 1880-83. Musical and dramatic critic, 
1888-98 (Dramatic Opinions and Essays, 1907.) Contributions to 
Fabian Society of which a militant member. Quintessence of Ibsen- 
ism, 1891. Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant 1898, followed by many 
others, published with prefaces. Among these Man and Superman, 
1903, John BulVs Other Island, and Getting Married, 1910. 

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, born 1874. For a time studied Art. 
Contributions to many periodicals. Among his works are ( i ) Ex- 
travaganzas (or Metaphysical ShilHng-Shockers) : Napoleon of 
Notting Hill, 1904, and The Man Who Was Thursday. (2) Essays: 
Heretics, 1905, Orthodoxy, 1908, All Things Considered. (3) 
Biographies: Browning, Dickens, Shaw. 

Shaw and Chesterton alike in wit and paradox, and unconven- 
tional expression. (''Then Mr. Traill and all his generation cov- 
ered their faces with their togas and died at the base of Addison's 
statue, which all the while ran ink." Dramatic Opinions.) Man in 
the Street (as opposed to School-master in the class-room) meth- 
ods of philosophy. Popularization of Ideas, and the divorce of 
Solemnity from Seriousness (granted on ground of latter's non- 
support in states of hilarity). Here likeness ends. Shaw, a cen- 
trifugal force, represents extreme Individualism of Protestantism. 
Chesterton, centripetal, Traditionalism of CathoHcism. But Shaw 
would obtain his end through legislated socialism; Chesterton his, 
through free play of individual. 

Shaw's qualities of wit, satire, and rationalism, all metallic, not 
excluding the brazen one of self-advertisement. But 

"if ground should break away 
He takes his stand on, there's a firmer yet 
Beneath it." 
See talk of fame in Preface to Plays for Puritans. His rational- 
ism, chlorine gas, offensive and painful to many noses, but with 
undeniable virtues as a disinfectant and bleaching agent. The bad 
smell never that of decaying animal matter. His Romantiphobia. 



28 Nineteenth Century English Literature 

Seems to think the diabetes mellitus of Sentimentalism humanity's 
one aihiient, and the restriction of sugar the one rule of right diet. 
Kinship to Ibsen and Nietzsche. (Interesting suggestions in Wells ^ 
and Shaw of Pluralistic ideas of William James and others.) The 
application of science to the breeding of Supermen by the state. 
At the last analysis a mystic with Schopenhauer's Wille zum Lehen, 
the Life-Force, for deity. "Life: the force that ever strives to ob- 
tain greater power of contemplating itself."' A self-confessed 
Calvinist (the Genevan cap and gown left in Houndsditch) with a 
belief in Justification by Faith and in Predestination. His phil- 
osophy (but not his personality which all report kind and genial) 
has cruelty of a latter-day saint assured of Grace. A modern Trusty 
Tomkins (vide Scott's Woodstock) with a fleshly frailty for strong 
liquors of controversy. 

While Shaw is rational and disintegrating, Chesterton is emo- 
tional and conservative. Against Art for its own sake, and for 
importance of creed. His own shows growing Orthodoxy with ap- 
parent approach to Roman Catholicism. Likeness {mutatis mutan- 
dis) to Newman. Admiration for Middle Ages, and distrust of 
modern science and philanthropy. At once anti-aristocratic and 
anti-socialistic. Has been compared to Carlyle but unhke him in 
complete acceptance of traditional Christianity. Creed, a mystical 
ccrtum est quia impossible based on convincing personal experi- 
ence. Influence of Whitman, Stevenson, Dickens, and Browning, 
which shows in his robust optimism, and the high spirits of his 
fiction. No psychological analysis or love interest here, but ''breezy 
bachelorhood" of adventure, strangely mixed with philosophic dog- 
ma. If Shaw's characters are clever cardboard figures cut out of 
propaganda and pulled with rational wires, Chesterton's are loosely- 
stuffed bolsters hurled with enthusiasm, in a jolly pillowfight of 
controversy. 



Nineteenth Century English Literature 29 

Meanwhile 

* 'Where has fleeting beauty fled'' 
we ask. 

"And we say that Repose has fled 
For ever the course of the river of Time." 
To a great extent the tender grace of a day that is dead is gone. 
A growing sense of humor and complexity has taken the place of 
Wordsworth's sublimity and simplicity. In both life and literature 
Romance and Beauty seem largely stifled by a sense of much un- 
corolated Fact — Material, Scientific, Sociological. 
''But what was before us we know not 
And we know not what shall succeed." * 

At least the time is not markedly superstitious, cowardly or pessi- 
mistic. And it can still hear the great voices of the century just 
passed; can hear that which repeated with Goethe 

"Wir heissen euch hoffen" ; 
can hear that which confidently affirmed 

"It's fitter being sane than mad" ; 
can hear that which sang 

"Our little systems have their day 
They have their day and cease to be. 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." 



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